16 Malborough Crescent London W4 Underpinning Specification

1. UNDERPINNING

To be read in conjunction with the Preliminaries and General Conditions.

WORKMANSHIP: The work shall be carried out in accordance with the Engineer's drawings and instructions
and to the approval of the Architect and the Building Control Officer. This specification is intended to be used
for mass concrete underpinning.

Any other sequence of operations or method of working proposed by the Contractor is to be submitted to the
Architect and copied to the Engineer and agreed in writing a minimum of 14 days before work is to be
commenced on site.

CONTRACTORS RESPONSIBILITIES: The Contractor shall be responsible for the safety of the
underpinned structure and provide all necessary shoring, strutting and bracing to ensure its safety and
stability at all times.

SERVICES: The Contractor is also to carry out a survey of the property and adjacent area to establish the
location of obstructions such as service runs or drains. Any obstruction found is to be brought to the
attention of the Architect / Engineer. The Contractor is to allow for any temporary support to the services or
obstructions during the underpinning.

CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE: The underpinning is to be undertaken in short sections not exceeding 1

metre in length. The underpinning is to be undertaken on a 'hit and miss' sequence as shown on the
drawings.

No adjacent pin is to be excavated until a minimum 48 hours after the adjacent pin has been cast and
packed up.

The Contractor is to provide drawings marked up to show the proposed sequence of underpinning a
minimum of 14 days before work is commenced.

EXCAVATIONS: Excavation shall be to the depth and width shown on the drawings. However, where tree
roots are encountered new underpins are to extend 600mm below the last trace of any root activity. The
sides of the excavations shall be adequately shored and propped to prevent subsidence or slip of the soil.
Soil faces behind the pin and at the formation level shall be undisturbed.

Any soil faces behind the underpinning that require to be retained shall be by precast concrete poling
boards. The boards are to have holes to enable the void behind the boards to be grouted up. The poling
boards are to be measured as left in.

INSPECTIONS: All excavations are to be inspected by the Engineer and/or the Building Control Officer.
Minimum notice of 24 hours is to be given when excavations are ready for inspection.

PREPARATION: The sides of the completed pin are to be thoroughly cleaned and scabbled to the
satisfaction of the Engineer.

The soffit of the existing footings is to be levelled off and cleaned of all loose or detrimental material.

No projecting partitions of the existing footings are to be trimmed except as shown on the drawings or
directed by the Engineer.

The Contractor must provide shear keys.

Allow for 150 deep x 100 wide shear keys across width of scabbled interfaces at 1m maximum vertical
centres. Minimum 2 per face. Form in timber or polystyrene.

ANTI-HEAVE PRECAUTIONS: Before carrying out concreting introduce anti-heave precautions in the form
of clay master as directed by the Engineer to the faces of the excavation.

PLACING CONCRETE: The concrete for the underpinning is to be mass concrete and poured continuously
to 75mm below the soffit of the existing footing. The concrete is to be fully compacted using a mechanical
vibrator.

The top 75mm of the pin is to be filled to the full depth and width of the void with a well rammed C35
concrete using 5mm – 10mm coarse aggregate and “Conbex 100” expanding admixture by Messrs Fosroc
UK Limited in accordance with their instructions. The filling of this void is to be undertaken 24 hours after the
mass concrete has been poured.

Page 4 of 5 Form Structural Design

16 Malborough Crescent London W4 Underpinning Specification

CONCRETE GRADE: On works where a full specification has not been provided, a FND2 mix should be
used. This has characteristic 28 day strength of 35N/mm² and is suitable for Class 2 sulphate soils.

OVER-EXCAVATION: Except where noted otherwise on the drawings, areas of over-excavation are to be
backfilled with a granular material and compacted in 225mm layers to provide a stable sub-base compatible
with the final finishes.

SPOIL: The contractor will include in his prices for the removal of all spoil arising from the works which is not
suitable for backfilling purposes.

RECORDS: A full record of each section underpinned is to be kept on site and readily available for
inspection by the Engineer or Building Control Officer.

GUARANTEE The Contractor is to provide a 10 year insurance backed guarantee for the underpinning
works.

Page 5 of 5 Form Structural Design